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Avery Sheriff Kevin Frye reports that there have been 3 reported cases of potential fraud within the past ten days, saying people are receiving a ‘Payment Pending Memorandum’ from an unnamed ‘Financial Acquisition Agency.’ The memo states that the person receiving the notice has a large sum of money
—usually over 2 million dollars—which is owed to them by the government or by another fund dispersal agency. The notice tells the receiver to send $20.00 to the agency for processing of the funds. Sheriff Frye says this is a scam, and asks citizens to not respond to the request. He said callers are subjected to strong-armed tactics to try to convince them this is real. He said, quoting the old adage, “if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.” He thanked several people for bringing this to the attention of the department, and said if there is a doubt about any transaction, please call the Avery County Sheriff’s Office and let them verify if it is a scam or not.